Director Greenhalgh: “War infects all our lives; recently it feels that this has increasingly become ‘our way of life’. It is rare to be given the opportunity to shoot a video that is deemed controversial. All I tried to do was make people think about the everyday life we live in our comfortable existences, and the contrast to that through war.”

If you were MTV would you have banned this video? I know if it were me, while I do not necessarily agree with the message of the video, would not have banned this. It is a very emotional and thought provoking video with a message, a true message. Unlike most of what fills MTV today.

UPDATE: To me the video seemed anti-war, that is what I mean by disagree. I do believe war affects our lives everyday whether we realize it or not.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After 40 years of performing rock music, pop ballads and movie soundtracks, Elton John is looking to cross over to yet another musical genre — hip hop.

“I want to bring my songs and melodies to hip hop beats — a bit like ‘No Diggity’ by Blackstreet,'” John said in excerpts of an interview posted on Rolling Stone’s Web site on Friday.

John told the music magazine he would like to work with producer Dr. Dre and a variety of artists, although he had yet to contact them.

“I want to work with Pharrell (Williams), Timbaland, Snoop (Dogg), Kanye (West), Eminem and just see what happens. It may be a disaster, it could be fantastic, but you don’t know until you try,” he said.

John is one of rock-n-roll’s most prolific singer/songwriters and is known for flamboyant costumes and spectacular piano playing. His hits include “Your Song,” “Rocket Man” and “Candle in the Wind.”

The 59-year-old musician’s next album, “The Captain and the Kid” is expected to be released in the fall.

He soared to stardom in the 1970s and has maintained a legendary status, branching into writing songs for movies like “The Lion King” and Broadway plays like “Aida.”

But, hip hop?

Actually, John performed the song “Stan” with Eminem on 2001’s telecast of the Grammys, the music industry’s top awards, and the pair brought the house down.

That’s the word from a study on the sector released today by the Yankee Group, a Boston technology research firm. The report predicts that Sony’s PlayStation 3 console will ultimately control a larger market share than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s planned Wii, but that Sony will likely be forced to slash prices for the expensive system and will be faced with a slimmer lead over Microsoft than with previous game consoles.

PlayStation 3 is due on retail shelves later this year after a delay disappointed many customers who expected it in stores in the spring. Microsoft, whose current Xbox lags the PlayStation 2 in sales by a wide margin, put the Xbox360 on sale last November, giving it a year’s head-start on sales. By 2011, though, the Yankee Group report predicts that Sony will have sold 30 million PlayStation 3s, controlling 44 percent of the market, compared with an estimated 27 million Xbox 360 units, which would account for 40 percent of the market.

Nintendo is expected to stay in third place with 11 million Wiis sold, claiming 16 percent of the console buying market.

The report also says that Microsoft, which launched the Xbox 360 at $399, is poised to deeply cut the retail price of the machine next year, putting price pressures on Sony, which plans to launch the PlayStation 3 at roughly $600, the highest price ever for a video game console.(Keith Reed, Globe staff)

Source: The Boston Globe

Their prediction is that Sony will sell 30 million PS3 units accounting for 44% of the total market-share, Microsoft will be just barely behind with 27 million and 40% market-share, and Nintendo will sell just over 11 million units totaling for 16% of the left over market-share.

If they are correct then this would mean that Sony would be just barely able to claim a victory, and with Microsoft closing the gap that it currently has then this to me means that Microsoft is the real winner regardless of sales. I’m not completely sure that the PS3 will do as well as they predict giving its $600 selling price, Microsoft’s $300-$400 Xbox 360, and Nintendo’s speculated sub-$200 Wii. I know I’m not ready to go out and spend $600 on a gaming console and a DVD player on steroids.

I think when the PS3 does come out I’ll be sticking with my Xbox 360, and I might buy a Wii while I’m at it.

Windows Live Writer is Microsoft’s attempt to give the blogging world the killer app it has been waiting for in terms of posting applications, and my first impressions seem to make me think they may have delivered that.

At first looks you can tell it is a Microsoft application, it has that Word 2003 feel to it which allows you to jump right in. When I first heard that Microsoft’s Windows Live division was making a blogging application I figured it would be a very Windows Live Spaces oriented application, and while it is that it also is very usable for other platforms including WordPress, Moveable Type, and Blogger.

I assumed that it would be very similar to the blogging feature in Word 12 which is very basic and has few features, but this application fixes many of the complaints I had about Word’s blogging feature. My biggest complaint was the lack of support for categories, Windows Live Writer has that feature. To my surprise it even detected the categories I had setup on my blog.

The setup is a snap, simply enter your username and password and Windows Live Writer “scans” your blog allowing it to completely configure its self.

Once you begin writing in Writer you have several views to choose from.

Normal- This mode looks and feels like your typing away in Word.

Web Layout- Looks like what you would expect if you use the web-based way of posting to a blog.

Web Preview – A “live-preview” mode, this allows you to see exactly what the post will look like once it is published on the web.

HTML Code– If you like seeing the HTML code behind your post then this is the mode for you.

SpellCheck is my favorite feature by far, I am a terrible speller and this lets me check before I post. While not as good as the SpellChecker included in Word, it’s good enough for me.

Just for fun I’m going to use the Map feature powered by Windows Live Local, here we go:

Charlotte, NC

This is not your normal after-thought rushed product from Microsoft, Windows Live Writer is a very good application. I am considering switching to this program. I have tried several others like is (ex: w.blogger) and I have to say this one comes in first by far. For a Beta application this is very cool and I can’t wait to try the finished product. Once again a great example of what the fine people at Microsoft can do. And like I said about the MSN division in the past, if the rest of the company could work like the Windows Live division Microsoft would once again be known for making the the best software out there.

From the a100wwe’s blog of news, politics, and sci/tech (tBlog) Archives:

Well, today I am going to let you in on some personal information about me that pertains to my post. That is I am still in High School, it’s not been let out before simply for one reason. That reason is it never came up, but now I feel I need to bring up some very troubling and at the same time promising information about the future of America.

The youth of today, me included but not as bad as most, have no idea about there future, past, or present. The main concern of my peers are who they are dating, what some rapper thinks or says, what drug they are going to do after (or in school), or a host of other non-important issues.

In my history classes they have no idea about the basics of American government, challenges, or people that helped shape America. You may remember from my Martin Luther King Day post I stressed this same point. Well today it’s time again. But don’t worry Dr. King is not my focus for today.

The other day I had to debate a fellow student about something he heard in a Snoop Dog song about smoking pot with the President. Now we all know Snoop Doggy Dog is a great source for our political information, but this was scary. He also challenged me with other references to so songs and artist I have never heard of, but I knew the events were not true. He honestly believes because of what a rapper sung that Bill Clinton, George Bush (both), Al Gore, John Kerry, and several other past or potential Presidents are all part of a secret organization of weed smoking, power hungry aliens with the sole purpose of using Satanism to take over the world. This is a far stretch, even thought the weed and alien stuff could explain quite a bit.

To move on from stories from people who were probably high when they made it to the act of getting high. Drug use in my school is a serious problem. They have easy access to steroids, marijuana, cigarettes, ecstasy, and many other illegal substances I have never heard of. I will be honest to you, I have never done drugs and the closest thing to it is the laughing gas at the dentist office. The use of drugs at my high school could be considered at the epidemic levels. Few are untouched by there effects, and I am definitely in a slim minority. The attitude towards drugs, students and teachers alike, are minute and seen as a necessary evil. Those that do them are from the gothic to the cheerleaders. The drug enforcement officer is lax on his job, and would rather be doing other things than saving the life of child. The students do not understand the effects of the drug use; they find ways to justify the use. Some say it’s to feel good, others say it’s to improve their eyesight, and the list goes on. No matter what excuse you come up with they all fall to the human trait of wanting to twist events and actions around until they come out as the innocent one.

This post may seem all negative from what I have said so fare, but there is hope. There are those who don’t do drugs, there are those who know there Americana, there are those who can defy human temptations. All hope is not lost. I know of a handful of students who I can trust the future of America to. They will be they few that the masses ride along on the backs of, I hope that I can be one of these also.

If you look back at previous post of mine this seems out of character for me, well it is but I also represent a change in my blogging. I am now adding social issues to the blog. The issues will range from topics you just read to many other pressing social issues affecting America. I will also add some more user integration features into the blog to provide a more diverse web of topics. The main focus will no longer be politics; this new shift will allow many more things to be covered, and political and social issues will share the main focus. I hope you enjoy this new focus shift, and hopefully it will last for many posts to come.

I was watching the Fox News Channel’s Discovery space shuttle launch coverage and I started thinking about what is about to happen. A lot is being risked on this flight, arguably the future of America’s space program. I hope we have a successful launch today.

Some say that NASA is a waste of America’s resources, and that we should re-prioritize our expenses. I’ll give it to them, with the amount of money that is spent of NASA we could fix many of the problems facing Americans today. But I think the possibilities of the future are more important than the current. With that just look at how much better our lives are because of NASA’s countless contributions to society.